Lazio wants 'breather' for education spending

When Rick Lazio visited the TU’s editorial board Friday, he started by reviewing his biography then made a long presentation about his big economic priorities, taking 15 minutes to outline the three areas where he’d cut spending: reducing the compensation and size of the state workforce, eliminating defined-benefit pensions for public employees and “re-designing” the Medicaid program.

I was somewhat surprised when Lazio didn’t make any mention of education spending, which accounts for the largest chunk of state spending. He spoke about it with nuance, calling New York’s institutions of higher education “some of the greatest assets we have on our balance sheet” and calling for more “flexibility” for SUNY and CUNY campuses to set tuition and enter into public-private partnerships, which Gov. David Paterson has pushed for but has met resistance in the Legislature.

“It’s very important to get it right,” Lazio said of elementary and secondary education. “We spend more per student than any other state in the country. I think our outcomes could be better and need to be better. I think we have a good school system I think we need to have a great school system, and I think that increases, to the extent that we will have increases — and I think we will take a breather right now, because where we are right now is that after the increases in aid to education over the last several years which have been robust, we’re going to have to take a breather back, here, I think.”

“But I do think that as our economy rebuilds, as we rebuild our tax base, there’s a couple of things that I would like to do,” he continued. He wanted to “encourage more early-childhood education” and use money to motivate “reforms” similar to what the Federal education department has done under Barack Obama, including programs like Race to the Top.

Later, we asked Lazio to clarify what he meant by “a breather.”

“I think current year means it’s likely that we’ll see less spending than we do right now. In the short run,” he said. He then noted that many school districts are struggling — singling out Buffalo — and noted that “We can’t avoid the fact that there’s a lot of responsibility for this, and I think the governor needs to be a prodder, a leader, a cheerleader, all of the above and needs to use the budget authority as effectively as one can to incent the kind of changes and reforms.”